Effective observables for electromagnetic duality from novel amplitude decomposition

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel amplitude decomposition method that reveals new duality-invariant observables in effective field theories, linking gauge theories, sigma models, and super Yang-Mills through amplitude relations.

Contribution

It presents a new decomposition of D-dimensional vector amplitudes that preserves partial amplitude relations and derives novel duality-invariant observables across multiple theories.

Findings

Derived new amplitude relations between sigma model pions and scalar sectors of Yang-Mills theories.

Established a connection between Born-Infeld duality and Einstein-Maxwell theory.

Proposed a framework for constructing duality-invariant observables at any multiplicity.

Abstract

We introduce a decomposition of D-dimensional vector amplitudes in terms of building blocks that preserve all partial amplitude relations of the parent gauge-theory. Using this decomposition, we derive a new set of amplitude relations between nonlinear sigma model pions and the pure-scalar sector of Yang-Mills-scalar theory. These new relations indicate an equivalence between Born-Infeld duality invariance and that of Einstein-Maxwell theory, considering their known double-copy construction from the two scalar theories with Yang Mills. This observation motivates a general framework for constructing duality-invariant effective field theory observables at any multiplicity using the building blocks in our amplitude decomposition. Finally, we conjecture a subtle relationship between these duality-invariant building blocks and the bosonic sector of N=4 super Yang-Mills.